MONEY AND WHERE TO FIND IT!

SO LITTLE MONEY!!! CUTTING COSTS! Post No.9 (A 7 minute read) 

Getting back in touch with my own childhood and my journey through life to date, I could see just how fortunate I had been to have been afforded a warm, comfortable home to live in. A very safe and wholesome environment in which to live, surrounded by some pretty good examples of civil human beings. The best start in life for any child most surely.

I then had my own stint at parenting and tried very hard myself to provide a similar comfort level and access to all the learning opportunities that I had been given. Spain had been a very family friendly place and still continues to be, so it seemed a far better choice for a young child as I saw things! My boy is tri-lingual, completely integrated and was able to grow up in a safe environment, which also had a marvellous climate.

Outdoor activities abounded, we had the sea on our doorstep and it all came at a significantly lower cost than in the UK. Sadly, for me at least, children grow into young adults and will seek their own independence, eventually moving out of the family home. Maybe not even contemplating the void that they will inevitably leave behind them. I felt completely lost, I did! I would turn to speak with him and go looking around the home for him. Where was he?

Of course, he will not be coming home today, or tomorrow! I would sit in his bedroom and cry. Did I ever envisage this day? NO! I did not. It was the beginning of this, my new era of life. Not an era that I would ever have chosen myself. The soul searching that occurs is immense. Having spent two decades with this precious person, all the laughter, fun, silly things, their voice, it seems as a death. You have lost your child definitively!

You are no longer a mother full time. What am I now then? So the soul searching begins, what is the rest of my life now going to be about? Well, as you may find out reading my book, I did not make my own choices at that time and as a result, I am still soul searching and asking myself, what is the rest of my life going to be about?

Chapter two is titled MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!! That all deciding commodity, which possession of, enables you to make your own decisions and lack of, means you have to go with the flow. But only as far as that little flow will allow you! Therefore, money is my prime occupation. In the back of my mind at all times is finding a source of income from somewhere so that I can once again make my own decisions. I figure though that we would do well all of us, whatever our circumstances, to look at reduction of our own outgoing monies as far as is possible.

TEN MOROCCAN DIRHAMS AND A HANDFUL OF COINS FROM THE PAST!

The last twelve months have seen pretty well all of Europe suffering from dramatic increases in fuel costs, leaving far too many in FUEL POVERTY land. Sitting as we are bathed in sunshine here in southern Spain, I cannot comprehend the lack of initiative regarding renewable energies. In particular solar energy. Our quality of life is already dire. We are suffering already from high fuel costs, we were already being very tight with our energy usage. 

But we have been pushed even harder now, oh, yes! Deaths from hypothermia will be noticeable come January here. There were a lot last year. I myself fear each winter and my survival possibilities. The sunny doorstep being life-preserving. The bottom line is now that many of us will be using no heat sources at all. In this second chapter, I look at those who could, because they have their own properties and finances available to them, look to improve their long term quality of life.

It is the senior citizens who are the most vulnerable to death by hypothermia, should it not be in a government´s interests to ensure that senior citizens are being given ample guidance in these new technologies and a financial help for those (the vast majority), who will never be able to pay for the installation themselves? Actually help all those struggling pensioners to improve the standard of their own home and reduce their fuel costs by switching them to renewable sources.

The science world is warning us on a daily basis that we cannot continue to live as we do. We must make serious changes. But no one must be left behind because of lack of finances!!! The ultimate goal is to reduce our dependency on dirty fossil fuels. Should it not therefore, be in every government´s plans to improve the standard and quality of living of all these senior citizens, at the same time making inroads on the reduction of electric and gas requirements.

These are all positives. The better able senior citizens are to live in their own homes, the less demand there will be for places in care homes. If our senior citizens are living comfortably and not suffering great physical hardship on a regular basis, then surely they will, with their improved quality of life, require possibly less medical attention too. A saving for the national health service as well. 

Though of course, this all comes down to money, does it not? Whether you have any or not? The greater part of the population will be of the `NOT´ faction! The government itself must lead the way, meaning that public buildings must all be ecologized, hopefully reducing those costs and of course, reducing substantially the usage of electric energy. Should that not be welcome to a government? Reducing their costs by doing the right thing? For the first time maybe, we are in a position whereby, we could all be making our fortunes simply from doing the right thing somewhere or other!

So, why are we not all busy living, working, breathing then? It will depend exclusively on who your local and national leaders are. No more, no less! If your leader has a will to lead and will listen to the available experts in each field, then change will be yours. If your local leader is like mine here, now into their third term in office, well, I have been here seven and a half years now and there are still the same pieces of scaffolding strewn by the wayside, visible to the passing public, that have been there since my day one here!

In seven and a half years no one can see to those old bits and pieces well, Medina Azahara! I mentioned the Medina Azahara influence, yes, I thought whilst on the Calipha´s terrace, well, you can see as far as you can see. Beyond your range of vision, if you do not go out on progress frequently, you really will not see for yourself what lays just out of your sight! My town was built by the Arabs and was a walled town built on a mountain. Yes, you can see a long way from up there but you cannot see down to where the said building debris lies, oh, no!

And we are expecting them to lead the solar way? That was the question that I was now asking myself. Is that not what we are all doing in truth? Waiting for our leaders to lead us? Well, they do lead us but where? They sure lead us a merry dance, as we say? They sure lead us up an awful lot of dead end streets too? It is time to turn our backs on our leaders and do our own thing? It is back to basics, back to politics, back to anarchy! Back to square one, all the ideas, all the notions and NO bloody money to do anything about it!

Thank you for reading. Please FEEL free to comment or make communication. There is a space below the post, a contact box in the right-hand panel and below that, should you wish to keep up with my trains of thought, give the follow tab a touch! Have you got solar panels installed yet? 

Do you think that our governments should be guiding us as the general public with regards to renewable energies? Are we on our own with this? There are now so many different distributors offering solar installation, how do we know which may be bonafide and those that are complete cowboy outfits?

In my next post I will give you an insight as to the content of chapter three entitled COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN, which as you may guess, examines our poor communication skills. Until then, happy learning!! 

And if you would like to read my book, you can find it with these links: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book 

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